Exemplary embodiments provided herein relate to a dial operation device including a plurality of dials for use in a vehicle, such as an automobile.
A related art dial operation device equipped to a vehicle is described in, for example, JP-A-2001-229780, and includes a plurality of dial devices mounted on a common circuit board (e.g., a printed circuit board as described in this document).
FIG. 6 schematically shows a device of this type. The operation device shown in FIG. 6 includes a circuit board 90 on which electric circuits are installed, a plurality of dial devices 92A, 92B, and 92C mounted on the circuit board, and a board supporting body 94 supporting the circuit board 90. The dial devices 92A, 92B, and 92C each have a dial knob 95 that turns and a dial element 96 detecting a turned position of the dial knob 95 and outputting a signal corresponding to the detected position. The board supporting body 94 includes a panel 98 positioned in front of the printed circuit board 90. The panel 98 is provided with a plurality of through-holes 98a, 98b, and 98c in which the dial devices 92A, 92B, and 92C, respectively, are inserted. The circuit board 90 is supported on the board supporting body 94 in such a manner that the dial knobs 95 of the respective dial devices 92A through 92C protrude frontward from the panel 98 from behind, through the through-holes 98a through 98c, respectively.
In an operation device in which a plurality of the dial devices 92A through 92C are mounted on a single circuit board 90 in this manner, it is desirable to use dial devices having the same shape and the same structure to save cost. This approach may be difficult, however, with certain panel shapes.
More specifically, dial devices all having the same shape and structure, such as dial devices 92A through 92C, may be used in panels in which the surface of the panel lies in a plane orthogonal to the turning axes X of the dials, such as shown in FIG. 6. However, in some panels, the surface of the panel 98 rises and falls in a direction parallel to the turning axes X due to design choice and/or for other reasons. When dial devices having the same shape are used as the dial devices 92A through 92C in circumstances where the positions of the corresponding through-holes 98a through 98c are different in a direction parallel to the turning axes X because of the rise and fall in the panel, the amount of the dial knobs 95 protruding frontward from the panel surface through the corresponding through-holes 98a through 98c may differ considerably. These differences in the amount of protrusion of the dial knobs from the panel can degrade the appearance of the device and can make it difficult to grasp the dial knobs.
In such an application, in order to make the protruding amounts of the respective dial knobs 95 equal regardless of the rise and fall on the surface of the panel 98, dial devices having dial knobs 95 of differing heights can be used to accommodate the rise and fall of the surface or the panel 98, such as the dial devices 92A, 92B and 92C shown in FIG. 7. As a result, the number of types of required dial devices is increased, and consequently the cost.
Conversely, there may be circumstances where the surface of the panel 98 lies in a plane without any rise and fall, but it may be desirable to set different protrusion amounts for the dial knobs 95 of the respective dial devices 92A, 92B, and 92C depending on the positions of these dial devices or a desired operational effect. In such a case, the shape and structure for all of the dials cannot be standardized.